Fr. John Dear joined scores of activists, including Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin, at the White House on the morning of September 23 to announce the launch of Campaign Nonviolence’s long-term movement for a culture of peace free from war, poverty, the climate crisis and the epidemic of violence. The assembly linked opposition to the new war launched by the U.S. this morning — bombing Syria and Iraq — to the violence of poverty and climate change.

“War only sows war,” Dear, a national co-coordinator of Campaign Nonviolence, announced at the rally in Pennsylvania Avenue.

Dear and four others — David Barrows, Alice Sutter, Lorna VanderZamden, and JoAnne Lingle — attempted to deliver a letter to President Obama calling for concrete policy shifts and an end to the new air strikes. Officials at the White House gate refused to take their document. The group then dramatized the impact of the new bombing in the Middle East by engaging in a “die in” in the White House driveway and refusing to move from the area in a spirit of peaceful and determined resistance.

They were then arrested, taken into custody, transported to a nearby police station, and released a couple of hours later, charged with “Incommoding.”

The White House demonstration is one of 237 nonviolent actions for a culture of peace taking place throughout the United States and beyond during Campaign Nonviolence Week, September 21-27. To see everything taking place this week, click here!